Reflecting on Challenges: Children’s Advertising Literacy in Navigating Persuasive Mobile Content

The mobile phone has emerged as a crucial gateway to the internet, playing a crucial role in modern connectivity. The ubiquity of mobile phones has transformed them into indispensable advertising platforms, attracting the attention of brands and companies. These entities deploy increasingly sophisticated and diversified commercial strategies in this digital realm. Of particular concern is the blurring line between content and advertising on platforms such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and gaming apps. These platforms enjoy widespread usage among children on their mobile devices, posing a growing challenge in distinguishing between entertainment and persuasive content. This challenge is exacerbated by the absence of specific regulatory frameworks. Consequently, minors tend to identify digital advertising primarily based on technical and formal cues, with the absence of these familiar signals leading to their failure to categorize it as advertising. Moreover, recognizing advertising on their mobile phones does not necessarily trigger critical thinking among minors. They often embrace it if it contributes to their entertainment, thus saving cognitive resources that would otherwise be used to process the content. Another dimension of interest pertains to minors’ consumption of content on their parents’ mobile phones, exposing them to brands and products that hold no intrinsic interest or appropriateness for them. This chapter delves into the capacity of children to navigate and engage with persuasive content through their mobile devices. It sheds light on the intricate dynamics of digital advertising and its impact on young audiences.